FLINCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does flinch mean? 

• FLINCH (noun)
  The noun FLINCH has 1 sense:

1. a reflex response to sudden pain

  Familiarity information: FLINCH used as a noun is very rare.

• FLINCH (verb)
  The verb FLINCH has 1 sense:

1. draw back, as with fear or pain

  Familiarity information: FLINCH used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLINCH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A reflex response to sudden pain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

flinch; wince

Hypernyms ("flinch" is a kind of...):

jump; start; startle (a sudden involuntary movement)

Derivation:

flinch (draw back, as with fear or pain)

• FLINCH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they flinch    ... he / she / it flinches   
Past simple: flinched   
Past participle: flinched   
-ing form: flinching   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Draw back, as with fear or pain

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

cringe; flinch; funk; quail; recoil; shrink; squinch; wince

Context example:

she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf

Hypernyms (to "flinch" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "flinch"):

retract; shrink back (pull away from a source of disgust or fear)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

flinch (a reflex response to sudden pain)

 Context examples 

We shall follow him; and we shall not flinch; even if we peril ourselves that we become like him.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Not yet, sir,” I said, flinching with the pain.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Yet I have seen Johnston shoot these twenty years, and I will not flinch from it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Silently, without flinching, he took a second cut in his forward rush, and as he leaped for the throat the groom cried out, "My God!" and staggered backward.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Your hand, Miss March! was the only answer her mute appeal received, and too proud to cry or beseech, Amy set her teeth, threw back her head defiantly, and bore without flinching several tingling blows on her little palm.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The stake we play for is life and death, or more than these, and we must not flinch.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

She was one of those people who can bear a great deal of pleasure, and she never flinched in her perseverance in the cause.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She did not flinch from the pain which I knew she must have suffered, but looked at him with eyes that were more appealing than ever.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I won't flinch.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He knelt down before her and taking her hand in his said solemnly:—I'm only a rough fellow, who hasn't, perhaps, lived as a man should to win such a distinction, but I swear to you by all that I hold sacred and dear that, should the time ever come, I shall not flinch from the duty that you have set us.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)